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It’s called chick porn, pornography that
is made by women for women, and it’s
now doing for the X-rated film industry
what Playboy did for the nude
centrefold 50 years ago — legitimising
explicit sexual entertainment for the
mainstream.

While in the past porn was widely
considered fetishistic or the domain of men
in grubby raincoats, pornography is moving
away from its secretive underground and is
becoming discreetly popular, particularly
among middle-class women and couples.

The world has a voracious, never-ending
appetite for explicit sex on video and the
internet. Ten thousand new film titles are
made each year in the United States alone.

Leading the international suburban
charge to make porn more palatable to
women is American Candida Royalle. The
former porn star turned writer, director and
producer, is the world’s most successful
purveyor of XXX films aimed at women and
their partners.

Royalle created her Femme line to give
XXX movies a woman’s voice and explore
what women desire from sex. Since 1984, her
production company has produced 15 films.

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She says adult entertainment is no longer
the sole domain of male cravings and inclination, and that women are actively seeking
it out.

“Women are eager to explore erotic
entertainment and to create a sexual
language of our own. Men also want to share
the fun of adult films with their female
partners — an activity that was not easy to
accomplish until movies like mine came
along.”

So what sort of porn do women want?
Royalle says women like to see a context.
They do not want a wham-bam mechanical
approach. They want to see lovemaking the
way they want to be made love to.

“They want real women with real lives;
they want to see women where men treat
them well and make love to them.”

Traditional adult movies stick to a
formula of seven scenes that include certain
sex acts and specific camera angles. Royalle’s
biggest complaint about her male-oriented
counterparts is their misogynous
predictability.

“They all have at least one girl-on-girl
scene, fellatio, cunnilingus, anal sex, double
penetration and group sex. The camera
angles and the way it’s shot — they have to
show things as grotesque and graphically as
possible.

“Cunnilingus looks like open-heart
surgery. The ‘money shot’ is always the
external ‘come shot’ — it’s like your typical
bad sex — no imagination and it’s always
over when the man comes.”

For the men making these movies there
has been no need for creativity. Women’s
pleasure was, and continues to be, of no
great concern. Royalle’s films are less “goal
oriented” and focus on sensuality, reminding
people that the whole body is an erogenous
zone. She says, “We get right away from the
Three Step Sex approach.”

Anna BrownfieldPicture:Cathryn Tremain

Most XXX movies are made in California,
whereas Royalle’s are shot in her native New
York.

The cover on a video or FVD can make or
break a porn film. Even the cheapest gonzo
flick will have a high-end production cover
to help it move off the shelves. Royalle says
often distributors spend more on the cover
than the actual film. She recommends that
people choose movies by the director and
not the cover.

“You’ll never confuse a Candida Royalle
film with a Seymore Butts movie.” (Not
surprisingly, a Butts film is a festivity of
devotions to all things anal).

Femme films have a distinctive Mills and
Boonish motif. One glance and the
aficionados know it’s a Royalle production.

Anyone unfamiliar with her work might be
forgiven for thinking these films are little
more than risque, amusing tales of romantic
seduction. Indeed, each film comprises such
elements, but they are rated XXX for a
reason.

While perhaps not quite as gynaecological as the blokey ones, they feature
myriad graphic hard-core sex scenes.

Roughly 20 per cent of the actors have had
some kind of surgical enhancement or
procedure. The characters are high-minded
career gals who are often juggling postgraduate
studies alongside their sexual hijinks.

An advocate for safe sex, Femme productions
insists its performers have proof of
negative HIV status before filming begins.

Condoms are always used unless the actors
are a real-life couple, clear of the virus.

Straight porn has a short shelf life — a
mere two months. Royalle says people’s
continued thirst for the medium means a
constant supply is churned out.

Taking time and care with a film seems to
make a difference. Of Royalle’s 15 titles, at
least three are considered “classics” and
continue to sell well.

Statistically, from 1986 to 1996, women
have become the consumers to be reckoned
with in the industry. Most orders for Femme
films and products (she also does a line in
female vibrators), are from women.

Interestingly, Royalle maintains that couples
have always indulged in her movies —
(usually at the woman’s behest), and none of
them are really intended for solitary
practices.

Royalle was brought up a Catholic, and
while no longer practising she defines
herself as an “ethical and compassionate
person”. People who criticise her work
misunderstand her, she says.

“It’s as if being religious or spiritual or
whatever I would call myself would preclude
working in the sex industry. I believe I am
doing good things for people, helping them
to appreciate and see their sexuality in a
positive way. Helping women to embrace
their sexuality and helping couples to come
together in better understanding, which only
furthers their overall relationship.”

A committed feminist, and now in her
very well preserved 50s, she says, “In my day
(the ’80s), it was very taboo for a woman to
direct a porn film. I would say that it all
changed in the ’90s.

“Women in their 20s are now wanting to
do very explicit stuff. They are not looking to
do art, they are looking to do racy, in-your-face sexy XXX movies and they make no
apologies about it.”

So is there still a shame factor attached to
the women who watch?

“Amazingly, I think there is. Although, I’m
feeling a very fast level of change occurring
now. It seems like there is a big growth spurt
in women’s comfort level, their sexuality and
being open about it.”

Gallery Entertainment distributes
Royalle’s films in Australia. Brett Allen
manages the Canberra division and says the
Femme line is popular in Australia, but the
figures can’t be compared to the huge
number of sales in the US where Royalle has
a large media presence.

“The female vote has always been hard to
get,” Allen says.

Royalle is often asked to speak on talk shows and at conferences on
sex, women and pornography. A
regular guest at the annual
American Association of Sex
Educators, Counsellors and
Therapists, she says therapists
tell her again and again how often they
recommend her films to clients.

Australia has a booming amateur and
gonzo XXX-rated film industry. Allen says it’s
surprising how many “normal couples” film
their shenanigans and offer them up for the
public gaze.

Royalle has long encouraged her female
friends and contemporaries to direct and
write films under the Femme label. Her Star
Director Series includes Annie Sprinkle,
Veronica Hart, Veronica Vera and Gloria
Leonard.

Coming from an art background,
Brownfield says just because it is porn
doesn’t mean it has to be bad filmmaking.

Having watched “a lot of porn”, she
nominates the German Expressionist film,
Caf Flesh and a lesbian porn flick Madame and Eve as her two all-time favourites in the genre.

“Candida’s (films) are a lot more interesting
than the usual crap porn films,”
Brownfield says. “Her women actually
partake in the sex scenes — they are not just
being f-----d, stereotyped and submissive.”

With its virtual anonymity, Brownfield
says the internet has totally changed porn
consumption for women. What was taboo
has become a lot more mainstream and
openly discussed.

In the interests of equality Brownfield
wants to use naked men in all her films. “The
more penises on screen the better. I want to
objectify them as much as possible.”

She also wants women with natural
bodies. “No blonde Barbie dolls with silicone
tits and plastic homogenous surgery to the
max whatsoever.”

Brownfield is touting for funding for a
semi-autobiographical script about being a
“door bitch” in the Melbourne rock ‘n’ roll
scene that she wants to make as an XXX
feature film.

Since it is illegal to film live sex acts in Victoria (and most other states), she
will have to shoot her sex scenes in NSW or
Canberra. Brownfield is also in talks with
Royalle regarding another script she has
written.

Like Brownfield, Royalle is a self-confessed
ethicist. Her motto is: Enjoy life to
the fullest and do the right thing.

“I believe I am doing good things for people, helping them to appreciate and see their sexuality in
a positive way.”

Candida Royalle’s book, How to Tell a
Naked Man What to Do: Sex advice from a
woman who knows, will be published in
Australia and New Zealand by Piatkus Books
at the end of the year.